Hidden Mate

18

My heart dropped. Were there more vampires here without the noblest of intentions?

“We’re the only two here from our nest.” Katherine chewed on her top lip. “Are others of our kind here?”

The fact that they weren’t lying comforted me greatly. It seemed to do the same for Egan since his body relaxed.

“Let’s just say I was out for a run last night and stumbled upon a girl with her fangs in a guy’s neck close to campus.” His arm brushed mine as he lifted his drink. “He’d be dead if I hadn’t interrupted her feeding. She heard me and ran, so I didn’t see her clearly.”

“Shit.” That would cause issues if students were going missing. “They aren’t supposed to eat where they live if intermingling with humans.”

“I’ve never been part of this civilization, and my thunder knows that golden rule.” He lowered his voice. “I get that the supernatural world doesn’t value humans as mates, but that doesn’t mean they should be treated with disregard.”

“Our nest agrees with that.” Lillith pointed at the sun glaring down on us. “Obviously, or we wouldn’t be sitting here with you right now.”

Egan tilted his head. “The fact you’re telling the truth is your only saving grace.”

“Any idea who it could be?” I didn’t know many vampires, so my resources were limited.

“No.” Katherine tugged at her lip. “But we could do some digging.”

“Is the guy okay?” Roxy’s face was lined with concern. “Did he get turned or worse?”

“Luckily, she didn’t feed him her blood, or I would’ve had to do something.” Egan scratched his head. “If there’s a new vampire here, it isn’t safe for anyone.”

A newly turned vampire had no problem drinking human or supernatural blood. Only later did their taste buds become fine-tuned enough to only crave humans.

“I carried him to his dorm.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “He’d lost so much blood. He was confused and couldn’t remember anything. I’m assuming she messed with his brain before she chowed down, but we need to find her before this becomes a regular occurrence.”

“We rob the blood bank periodically …” Katherine started.

“Shut up,” Lillith hissed. “We don’t need everyone knowing.”

“Do you actually think that’s a well-kept secret?” Roxy chuckled. “Every supernatural knows that little trick of yours.”

“Fine.” Lillith breathed. “We might have extra for a vampire who’s in a pinch.”

“She seemed to like drinking from the tap.” Egan looked at me. “Even the moonlight bothered her.”

“Then why is she here?” Normally, if they’d gone that dark, they could live just fine without an education.

“No clue.” Egan tapped his finger on a tray. “Either way, it can’t be a good thing.”

The next morning, Roxy, Lillith, Egan, and I met outside of the Student Center thirty minutes before our classes began. Katherine had an earlier class, so she couldn’t be part of our meeting.

“Did you find anything out?” Egan asked.

“No, we’ll have to do some digging.” Lillith adjusted her tight-fitting black dress. “It’s not like my group knows everything about the others.”

“I can see if my dad knows anything too, but I’ll have to be strategic.” If my dad got a whiff of a vampire that dark was here, he’d be down here in a heartbeat, trying to recruit her for the awful side jobs he needed people with no conscience to perform. “It won’t be a fast answer.”

“That’s fine. We need to be careful, but in the meantime, I’ll keep a patrol. No one else needs to get hurt.” Egan glanced at his wrist. “I’m going to grab something to eat. Will the three of you go check out the tree line to make sure nothing happened last night after I fell asleep?”

“Yeah, see ya,” I said as I waved, and the three of us headed toward the woods.

“Why is he so big on protecting humans?” Lillith whispered.

I wanted to smack her since there were people around, but the damage had already been done. “I don’t know.” It was odd. Most supernaturals cared more about not being discovered than protecting humans.

“Maybe his kind doesn’t discriminate like ours.” Roxy shrugged. “Who knows?”

“That would be so strange, though.” Before humans and other supernaturals began tracking them down, dragons had been the most powerful race. You’d think they’d want to end up back on top, but worrying about humans wouldn’t put them there.

We walked half a mile into the woods from the border, and after another quarter of a mile, something metallic hit my nose.

“Do you smell that?” Please, God, let me be imagining things.

Roxy frowned. “Yeah.”

We picked up our pace, and between two large bushes, we found a small puddle of blood. It could easily have been from a vampire or animal eating something. The blood had congealed, so the trail of whoever had done this was cold.

“Should we tell Egan?” He already acted overly concerned, so I’d hate to tell him when it could be nothing.

“No, not yet.” Lillith squatted and sniffed the area. “I think this was an animal.”

“Okay, but maybe we should come back here after classes. We can meet at the cafeteria.” I hated to disregard it and have it turn out to be something. “We can go over the area again to see if we missed something.” We had ten minutes before classes started.

“Sounds good.” Roxy motioned for us to follow her. “Let’s go.”

The next two classes passed without much of an issue. Egan asked if we’d found anything, and I told him the truth and that we would look into it more later. He would meet up with us to help scour the area to make sure we hadn’t missed anything.

My heart hammered as I climbed the stairs to my psychology class. It, unfortunately, had everything to do with Donovan. A human held too much control over my emotions.

Like last time, I entered the classroom, and the seat right in front of him was the only one open. I wished something had changed, because the more time I spent with him, the more I was drawn to him. I hadn’t confided that little fact to anyone.

I took my seat and pulled out my classroom items. I refused to start a conversation with him. Luckily, the guy who’d hit on me the first day now avoided me. My wolf took joy in that.